As a 2020 graduate, I’ve had a little bit of time away from the Centenary Bubble. Now that I live in South Louisiana, I’ve spent a lot of that time trying to explain Centenary to other people. Whether it has been my employers, friends, high school students who were college hunting, or just someone who noticed my Centenary sweatshirt, it’s something that comes up more than I really anticipated. People just aren’t as familiar with Centenary here as they are in the Ark-LA-Tex area, which is fine, but it means I’ve had to pinpoint and refine the things in my mind that made up my Centenary Experience.

I’ve found that when these people ask about my time in college, I don’t immediately think about the numerous times I spent running up different flights of stairs in Jackson to find a working printer before class. It isn’t my first instinct to mention the nights where all the expectations started to get too overwhelming. In hindsight, even frustrations with administrative decisions or drama between students are not what I think of when I think of Centenary anymore. As frustrating and difficult as those moments were, something that far outshines every single vent-able topic is the admiration and respect I have for my college professors. 

I think the thing about Centenary professors is that you really get to grow with them. It’s pretty likely that you’ll have the same professor once or twice, or maybe even every year you’re a student. You get to hear about the exciting moments in their lives like finally being able to submit for tenure or their kids getting engaged. You also get to bear witness to the some of the less exciting things like grant funding falling through or even breaking a finger mid-class. They definitely saw my good and bad times too. When I was struggling with quitting my first job, Professor Hawkins was the first person I talked it through with. She also listened to every single one of my frustrations with departmental things without ever passing judgement or belittling what I felt. When I was struggling with a seemingly impossible problem, Dr. Hendricks sat with me in his office for hours, and we brainstormed solutions together. And when I was thinking about doing a study abroad program, Dr. Kress and Dr. Hendricks were the first people to cheer me on and give me trip recommendations. 

Professors at Centenary aren’t just there to teach the curriculum and clock out. Although there may be exceptions, so many Centenary professors become mentors, people who keep you sane and root for you. At Centenary, you really get to do life with your professors in a way that just doesn’t happen at other schools. As many technical skills as I learned from my professors, I learned twice as many life lessons. Navigating conflict, integrity, generosity, compassion, and grace are just a few of the things that I saw my professors model in the way they interacted with us, and those are the lessons I still think about most today.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m so glad to be done with school and to not have impending assignments looming over my head all the time. But I do miss my professors almost just as much because at the end of the day, they’re what make Centenary special. They are the reason I talk about Centenary with so much pride.

So, this is a little thank you to all of the professors that continue to make Centenary what it is. Thank you to Dr. A-B for expecting more from me than I knew I was capable of. Thank you to Dr. Hendricks for showing me how to think bigger and to never take no for an answer. Thank you to Dr. Kress for teaching me to care deeply about listening to the voices of the past, and for living out the idea that extreme kindness is never overrated. Thank you to Dr. Hamming for making me always want to turn in work that I felt proud of. Thank you to Dr. Leithauser for being so intentional about creating healthy environments for growth and critique. Thank you to Reverend Lindy for always having an open door, open ears, and an open heart whether I was currently in your course or not. Last but definitely not least, thank you to Professor Hawkins for caring about us as people far more than any work we did (or didn’t) turn in - you really are the absolute best. And thank you to all of the other professors on campus who continue to pour their hearts into their work and make it so easy for me to genuinely be Centenary Proud. 

Kayla Willie

I graduated from Centenary in May of 2020. I am an avid lover of coffee, concerts, and sharing my unsolicited opinions on the Internet.

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